just life

It has been a long and busy day today. These days, weekends are turning out to be busier than weekdays. I can’t think of anything to write, so I will just write about my day in bullets.

Woke up early as Cheebu had school. Went for a nice long morning walk with hubby after dropping her off to school.

Back home, had breakfast and got ready to go to market. Bought a few things for the home and looked up some furniture. Bought some diamond (imitation) studded laces. Cheebu’s school has annual function next week and she is participating in a group song. The teachers have given me an oversized frock (probably fit or 10-12 year girl) and asked me to modify it by hand(so that it is not permanent) to fit her 🙄 stitch some diamond lace on it and also make a necklace and bracelets out of the lace. I am in total despair over it 😦

We were back just in time to pick her up from school after her singing practice where the teacher informed me that I need to get white stockings and white belle shoes as well.

Back home, made a quick lunch of Khichdi, while husband bought tonnes of vegetables 🙄

Had lunch and managed to have a short nap.

Had nice adrak chai after waking up and washed those tonnes of vegetables.

A neighbour from my old building had invited me for haldi kumkum. Went there with Cheebu who was super excited to see herold friends and so were they. Managed to get white stockings from an old neighbour 🙂

Back home, got ready to go out as it was the annual day celebrations of our building. Went down, and saw the programmes on stage, all wonderful performances by the kids and some bythe adults too. Cheebu was sad as she was not performing. We missed the celebrations at our old building very much. Last year, Cheebu performed on stage with friends in a group dance and a fashion show. We had a good time preparing for it. Hubby and I had won first prize in Antakshari. It had been lot of fun. Sigh! Maybe by next year, we will start enjoying here too. Had a dinner of Veg Biryani with boondi raita, pav bhaji and gulab jamun. Went for a short walk.

Back home, I was panicking as I had not posted anything for today. Hubby busied himself in making strawberry shake while I got down to writing this blog post. Enjoying some yummy strawberry shake as I am typing this.

Even as I write this, I am thinking about altering Cheebu’s dress for her annual day and getting it ready and the white belle shoes that I have to find by tomorrow 😦

I remember the time when I had traveled abroad around 8 years back. I didn’t have any laptop. There were no smart phones then. I just had a basic mobile phone to make and receive calls and sms. Keeping in touch with loved ones in India was neither easy nor cheap. Calling or receiving calls from India on my mobile was extremely expensive and was reserved for emergencies only. I bought calling cards and would talk to my parents and hubby just about twice a week or so. Rest of the time I would communicate through email. I wasn’t aware of applications like gtalk even if they existed then. It was very tough for me not being able to be connected to my loved ones all the time.

Recently, when hubby was abroad, I realized how much things have changed. Never for a moment we were not connected. International roaming on mobile is still very expensive, but with smart phones, laptops and good availability of wifi and even internet on your mobile if you take a local sim, being in touch is a lot more easier. With applications like Whattsapp, gtalk and skype we were connected at all times. We had discovered Whattsapp just about a week or 2 before he left and what a timely discovery it was for us 🙂 We skyped every evening and rest of the time it was whattsapp and chat on gmail. Whattspp is such a great app. We would click pictures and send… pictures of everyday things, us in different moods… Hubby would send us a picture almost daily of what he had cooked for dinner 🙂 If he went sightseeing, pictures were clicked and sent immediately, the exact location of the place was shared on map 🙂

Cheebu became an expert in using Whattsapp. Generally, I don’t encourage her to use the phone or tab, but this was a great way of communicating with her papa. I remember, if I scolded her she would immediately reach for the tab and complain to hubby “Mumma ne mujhe daanta, mumma se gussa ho jao (Mumma scolded me, get angry with her)” 🙂 … writing all this with suitable smileys. She would never send a message without a smiley 🙂 Talking of smileys, I remember, once hubby and I fought and didn’t speak to each other for a couple of days. Later we made up… and the entire communication of making up happened using only smileys 🙂

Another time, I remember being at work and was chatting with hubby via chat…. he was at a supermarket looking for a vegetarian brand of bread. I could look up on the internet and tell him a brand that was vegetarian… yes from so far off. Yes, technology has definitely made the world shrink.

The only thing that is missing is the physical touch or feel of the person from so far off… as Cheebu would say sometimes to hubby “Papa, laptop me se nikal ke aa jaao (Papa, come out of the laptop)” On another ocassion, a hungry me told the husband “I don’t feel like cooking and I am hungry”. Hubby had made khichdi that day and said “I wish I could upload the khichdi from here and you could download it there and eat it” 😀 …If only 🙂 🙂 … maybe someday… 🙂

Hubby and I are busy in the kitchen getting dinner ready. Cheebu has a friend who has come over to play and the 2 girls are busy playing with the kitchen toys. Cheebu smells a familiar smell coming over from the kitchen…. comes running over to confirm if it is what she thinks it is for dinner. We tell her yes it is. Overjoyed she runs back to tell her friend. After some time, the friend goes home and Cheebu immediately clears up her toys and keeps it in place and tells me ” See Mumma, I kept all my toys in place without you telling me ”

Scene 2

I am hanging out the wet clothes from the washing machine in the balcony for drying. Cheebu comes to me “Mumma, shall I help you?” and then picks up the wet clothes from the washing machine and brings them to me one by one, struggling as her hands barely reach the bottom of the washing machine.

Scene 3

While I am hanging the last of clothes, she goes to the kitchen and says “Mumma I will lay the table while you are hanging the clothes”. By the time I have finished hanging the clothes, I see she has neatly laid down all that her tiny hands could carry on the chatai (mat)

Scene 4

We are seated for dinner, Cheebu goes running into the bedroom and gets my mobile. “Was it ringing?” I ask her. “No Mumma, but I brought it here so that you will not have to get up and go if it rings during dinner time”. Hubby and I exchange glances as we can see the angel ring above her head 🙂

Life has been very very busy lately. I have lots of things to share, but things have been so busy both at work and on the homefront that I have had no time to update my blog. There are many half written posts in my drafts… while I finish them, I thought I owe this space a quick update.

Making the most of the good weather at this time of the year, most of the weekends are spent outdoors. We made a day trip to Kashid beach which is about 120 km from our place. We love this beach so much that it has become like a sort of annual pilgrimage for us 🙂

Last to last thursday, hubby pings me at work and we plan a road trip… yes, just like that 🙂 By next day, plans are made and hubby gets the bookings done and saturday morning we are on the road 🙂 We planned a 3D/2N trip along the Konkan coast to Velneshwar and Ganpatipule but when we reach the beautiful beach of Ganpatipule, we decided to extend our trip by one more day. It was such a lovely place. I had heard so much about this place and was longing to visit it for a long time. It was much farther than any road trip we had done so far, so we were not sure if we could drive all the way till there especially since I don’t have the confidence to drive on highways and so the entire job of driving falls on hubby. We had always thought we would go there by train. But synchronizing train reservation with MTDC resort availability at short notice always proved to be impossible. So when hubby suggested that we could drive there with a break at Velneshwar, I quickly agreed. As it is, I love road trips and with our own car we get to explore more of the place. We had a great trip… travelogue coming up soon 🙂

On the work front, it was that time of the year where in addition to my usual work, I take some lectures for the trainees. I have realized that while I like to teach, this is the most that I can manage for the year. Preparing for the lectures takes such a big amount of my time and there is so much of effort involved that I really really admire people who do it on a regular basis. But I am not complaining… I love all the interaction that I get with the trainees and it is a learning experience for me too. Here’s an incident… last year, after I finished with my lectures, a trainee came and said to me “Thank you Ma’am. You taught the subject really well” To say that I went over the moon would be an understatement 🙂 So this year, after I have finished the course, when I see a trainee approaching me with words like “Ma’am, I would like to tell you something…” I am prepared to go over the moon again till I hear “… you have a great collection of salwar suits” 🙄 Sigh! I manage to mutter some thanks and then ask her about the course 🙂

Lectures are over, but life at work continues to be busy. At home too, since weekends are spent outdoors, there is a long list of unfinished chores. Most of the last weekend was spent doing that. Looking forward to the coming long weekend. Yippee! 🙂

We have discovered a Table tennis table in our building. While hubby goes down to play every morning, I manage to play with him (I have no one else to play with 😦 ) on weekend evenings. I must say, I am enjoying this 🙂 I wish we had discovered this earlier.

I have lots of Cheebu updates as well. Hope to do a post soon. As of now, we are worried by her recent behaviour. Since last week, she has been a bit unwilling to go to school. Now this has never happened before. In fact, she loves school and her teacher. But on at least 3 days from the past 6 school days, she has refused to go to school and even cried at school 😦 I tried to discuss with her but she gave me all sorts of vague reasons. When this happened again today, hubby spoke to her teacher. She is as surprised as us but said that once in the classroom, she is normal. She is doing good at school and everyday she shares with us stories from the school as enthusiastically as before. She tells us about the stars teacher gave her, about her friends … I hope it is only a phase but it is worrisome for us. I am planning to talk to her daycare teachers tomorrow.

I have always wanted to have a Christmas tree at home… and we got one this year 🙂 Our very first one!! We got it a few days back and Cheebu and I set it up with lovely decorations. We wanted to put up some DIY decorations too but we didn’t find time for that this year.

This is Cheebu dressed up for Christmas celebrations at school. She asked santa for a doll (similar to the one we got for her new cousin baby) and a story book. The story book was a last moment addition to request from Santa Claus… So Santa could not deliver it on time 😉 But if she remains the good girl that she has been lately, Santa may still bring it for her tomorrow morning 😉 Meanwhile she is overjoyed that Santa got her the doll she had asked for 🙂

I am at home since yesterday nursing myself back to health. I had this cold for past 2 weeks that I was ignoring and at the most trying to subdue with home remedies. Finally, it turned so bad this weekend that I was forced to take a few days off from work. I spent most of yesterday in bed, sleeping and am feeling much better today 🙂 I debated whether to leave Cheebu at daycare or bring her back home from school (It would have been nice to enjoy some “me” time 🙂 ). Finally, decide to bring her back home. I had not told her about my leave, so she was pleasantly surprised to see me waiting for her at the end of school. We came back from school walking, stopping several times when she wanted to show me the earthworm, snail and butterfly that she had spotted 🙂 … something which we get to do so rarely. I am so enjoying this feeling of doing things at my own pace and not having to rush with things. Bliss! I am so thankful for this unexpected but much needed break from the daily grind of work-home routine. Now going off for an afternoon nap with Cheebu 🙂 Small joys 🙂